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Top rowing coach defects to Kiwis

Jim Morton

Rowing Australia has a massive experience void to fill after Noel Donaldson, who guided the Oarsome Foursome to two Olympic gold medals, became their latest coach to jump ship.

Former RA high-performance director and head coach Donaldson will leave for New Zealand on Saturday to become Rowing NZ's new men's sweep coach after he was shifted sideways in Australia's recent coaching restructure.

The shake-up - overseen by chief executive Andrew Dee and new high-performance director Chris O'Brien - has resulted in three top coaches quitting for jobs overseas.

Elite development and talent identification appointments Peter Shakespeare and Larissa Eiesenthal, the AIS women's head coach for the previous Olympiad, have both linked with Canada.

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Donaldson, who resigned on Tuesday night with RA caught out when RNZ announced the move, admitted he'd been disappointed to be moved into a new Under-23 elite development role in the coaching shake-up.

The 57-year-old applied for the Kiwi post, vacated by Dick Tonks who coached men's pair Hamish Bond and Eric Murray and sculler Mahe Drysdale to gold in London, after being overlooked for a senior hands-on role that he wanted.

But Dee strongly denied RA had intentionally shelved Donaldson, the men's head coach at the London Games, by shifting him sideways.

"We felt we needed to freshen things up a little at the senior coaching end but we also wanted someone of Noel's experience and credibility to be looking at our next group of athletes for Rio and beyond," Dee told AAP.

"He's been a central and pivotal character in Australian sport for a long time ... but we felt Donno's best contribution was to develop the next group of athletes."

Donaldson will now be in a black NZ tracksuit in three weeks time when the Sydney World Cup is held at Penrith, adding extra spice to the first international regatta of the year.

"Noel is going to be a huge asset for Rowing New Zealand," said RNZ's high performance manager Alan Cotter.

"We were looking for someone who had achieved results as a head coach in sweep oar boats, had worked successfully in a high performance program, had the ability to develop, lead and maintain a strong team culture - and Noel has all of these attributes."

Aside from overseeing the Oarsome Foursome, Donaldson coached Australia's coxless pair to bronze in Sydney in 2000 and was head coach and high-performance director for Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008).

Australia's rowing shake-up has come after they failed to win a single gold in London, where they took three silver and two bronze, while New Zealand finished with three gold.